THEOLOGY 



OF 



MECHANICALISM 



SCH0LF1ELD 



THEOLOGY 



OF 



MECHANICALISM 



BY 
SOCRATES SCHOLFIELD 



Provides? ce, R. I. 

PUBLISHED BY S. SCHOLFIELD 

1910 






Copyright 1910 

BY 

Socrates Scholfield 



)CI.A277743 



INTRODUCTION. 



From a known base line and the adjacent angles, 
the dimensions of objects in an inaccessible field may 
be correctly determined. So, likewise, from known 
mechanical and biological data and the related analo- 
gies, we may determine the true purpose of animal 
life upon the earth, and clearly define the nature of 
that inaccessible realm of future conscious existence, 
which has been considered as beyond the reach of 
human investigation. This fact is clearly set forth 
and elaborated in the unprecedented and unique ar- 
guments of the new Doctrine of Mechanicalism, which 
maintains that, if the governing factors of animal or- 
ganisms are based upon the principles of practical 
mechanics as embodied in the governing elements of 
analogous inanimate machines, then a future state of 
conscious existence is assured, and important ques- 
tions of ethics and theology may be satisfactorily an- 
swered. 

S. S. 



THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM, 



Assuming for a primary postulate that animal or- 
ganisms are conscious machines, the operations of 
which are in strict accordance with the specific nature 
of their embodied forces and the mechanical arrange- 
ment of their parts, it becomes a necessary sequence 
that the general laws of mechanical function which 
are applicable to the analogous correlated elements of 
inanimate machines should also be applicable to the 
corresponding correlated elements of the animal or- 
ganism. And in following out this assumed analogy 
of function, we must necessarily be restricted to the 
mechanical terms applied to the related elements of 
the known inanimate mechanism, in order to prevent 
confusion and misunderstanding when thus making a 
comparison between the functional elements of inani- 
mate machines and the corresponding elements of the 
animal organism, to which a terminology not applica- 
ble to the parts of inanimate machines has been here- 
tofore applied. 

In the terminology of practical mechanics, the 
words sensible and sensitive are used to characterize 
those material resilient elements which, through their 
quality of automatic reaction, are adapted to indicate 



THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM 

the varying conditions of an impinging energy. And 
we may employ the word sensive to specifically denote 
the sensible and sensitive elements which pertain to 
consciousness. Also, in referring to the parts of those 
inanimate machines which are adapted for the dis- 
criminate dispensation of energy under variable con- 
ditions, we may employ the word enginery, to denote 
that portion of the mechanism in which the energy 
to be dispensed is embodied, and the words governor, 
and governing mechanism, to specify that portion 
which serves to supervise and control the dispensation 
of the energy to meet the varying requirements. And 
these terms are in equal degree applicable to the corre- 
sponding parts in animal organisms. But in order to 
provide a term which will denote a distinction between 
animate and inanimate governing mechanisms, the an- 
imate governing mechanism may be called the govern- 
ing member. 

In every inanimate machine in which a sensible gov- 
erning mechanism is so combined with a dynamic en- 
ginery that the machine will act automatically to suit 
the constantly varying conditions of an external me- 
dium, the governor has, in all cases, a removable rela- 
tion to the enginery, and is capable of performing its 
inherent sensible functions when so removed, while the 
enginery will be rendered incapable of its previous sen- 
sible action. Hence, if it can be shown that a true 
mechanical analogy exists between the sensitive ele- 
ments of animal organisms and the corresponding sen- 
sible elements of inanimate mechanisms, then we may 



THE GOVERNING MEMBER 

reasonably conclude that the governing member of 
the animal organism must, like the governing element 
of an inanimate machine, be capable of performing 
its inherent sensible functions when removed from the 
organic enginery with which it is connected. 

For a well known example of the separable relation 
that exists between the dynamic enginery of an inan- 
imate machine and its governing mechanism, reference 
may be made to the mechanism of a clock, in which, 
upon the removal of the sensible governing pendulum 
and the executive pallets connected therewith, from 
their operative engagement with the dynamic engin- 
ery, the suspended pendulum and its connected pal- 
lets will soon pass automatically to a state of static 
equilibrium, and will then be capable of oscillation in 
the same uniform intervals of time as before, when- 
ever the resulting condition of static equilibrium is dis- 
turbed by the action of suitable external forces in the 
environment. But the stored power of the dynamic 
enginery will, in this case, soon be expended by the 
rapid downward movement of the actuating weight 
without useful effect, the hands of the clock having by 
the removal of the governing mechanism, been ren- 
dered incapable of indicating standard intervals of 
time. And no amount of rewinding will restore to the 
enginery its former time-keeping movement. Thus, 
the sensible pendulum of the clock and the connected 
executive pallets — which taken together constitute a 
governing mechanism — represent to us a mechanical 
organization which under certain conditions has an 



THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM 

inherent capability for the independent performance of 
its specific function. And similar conditions of in- 
herent, independent functional action pertain to all 
discriminative governing mechanisms in inanimate ma- 
chines. Hence by mechanical analogy, the corre- 
sponding elements of the governing member should 
also be inherently independent in the performance of 
their special functions, and, therefore, be separate and 
distinct in their natures from the dependent elements 
of the organic enginery. 

The fabrication of an extensive and complicated me- 
chanical structure requires the accumulation of the 
proper building materials at the place of manufacture, 
together with the employment of a sufficient number 
of workmen under the directive control of a supervisor, 
who is the custodian of, and comprehends the working 
plans of the proposed organization ; and in the absence 
of supervising control with reference to a special plan 
of mechanical construction, the workmen, then com- 
pelled to act disconnectedly and without knowledge of 
a specific dimensional specification, would of them- 
selves be entirely incapable of organizing the required 
extensive and complicated structure from the provided 
building materials. 

In building up the vertebrate animal organism from 
the fertilized embroyonic cell, the material elements 
employed are the continuously divided protoplasmic 
cells, which, with their microsomes or ultimate cell- 
elements, collectively constitute the organic enginery, 
and individually perform different functions in accord- 



THE PROMOTING MEMBER 

ance with their relative positions in the organic struc- 
ture. And we may conclude from the analogies of in- 
animate mechanical structures, that the functional dif- 
ferentiation of the cells in accordance with their rela- 
tive positions must be determined by a sensitive super- 
vising member, which, in its nature, must be as sepa- 
rate and distinct from the individual cells, and from 
the fabricated organic enginery, as the supervisor of 
the building of a mechanical structure is separate and 
distinct from the structure itself, and from the work- 
men by whom the structure was made. 

The human supervisor of the fabrication of a me- 
chanical structure obtains the governing control of the 
separate independent workmen by the dispensation to 
each of them of certain stipulated wages, derived from 
a potential monetary field pertaining to the owner or 
proprietor of the structure to be fabricated, which field 
constitutes a conventional embodiment of accumulated 
energy; and without this supervising dispensation of 
accumulated energy from the monetary field of the 
proprietor, or its equivalent, the workmen, through 
lack of material support, would be unable to proceed 
with the building. Hence, we may conclude from 
analogy that the governing control of the individual 
protoplasmic cells, for the production of an organic 
structure, is attained through the mechanical dispensa- 
tion, to each of the cells, of a form of potential en- 
ergy which is derived from an external field, and dif- 
ferentiated to the cells in accordance with a representa- 
tive plan or model of the proposed organization. And 



THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM 

the dispensating or promoting element of the animal 
organism, through the mechanical action of which the 
required dispensation and differentiation of fabrica- 
tive energy is effected, may be termed the executive 
promoting member, which may be considered as identi- 
cal with the subconscious self of hypnotism. 

The mechanical dispensation of differentiated energy 
to a collection of separate and distinct inanimate en- 
tities, for the production therefrom <5f an integral dif- 
ferentiated fabric, is illustrated in the process of pho- 
tography, wherein the uniform radiant energy of the 
environment, primarily differentiated by impingement 
upon the reactive form of the object to be photo- 
graphed, and again differentiated by means of the lens 
of the camera, causes a correspondingly differentiated 
action upon the surface of the chemically prepared 
plate, with the resulting production of a pictured rep- 
resentation of the form of the object. In this case, the 
surface molecules of the chemically prepared plate rep- 
resent the workmen; the reactive object represents a 
medium to which the uniform field of radiant energy 
is referred for primary differentiation; and the lens 
constitutes a medium which selects the required differ- 
entiated rays and transmits them in their selected 
form to the molecular workmen, with the resulting 
production of a symbolic representation of the ex- 
ternal form of the object on the surface of the plate. 
And when we pass from inanimate material mole- 
cules to cultures of independent living bacteria, we 
find that they, through their thermotactic or photo- 

10 



THE PROMOTING MEMBER 

tactic properties, may have their characteristic quali- 
ties changed, and their individual movements con- 
trolled, in accordance with a specific plan, by means 
of differentiated radiant energy. 

Hence, if the differentiation of radiant energy will 
cause uniformly distributed inanimate molecules of 
matter to become differentially transformed into pic- 
torial symbols and also cause the differentiated ar- 
rangement and rearrangement of the separate individ- 
uals in cultures of living bacteria, we may reasonably 
conclude that the transmission by the executive pro- 
moting member, of a specific form of constructive en- 
ergy, differentiated from the uniform energy of the en- 
vironing field, in accordance with a true model of he- 
reditary organization, would enable the sensitive indi- 
vidual cells — the organic workmen — to build up a com- 
plete multicellular organism, in strict accordance with 
the special characteristics of the transmitted energy. 

We therefore posit that there exists in the animal 
organism an executive promoting member, having as a 
function the transmission of differentiated energy to 
the individual cells by means of a constructive model 
of hereditary organization, which model pertains di- 
rectly to the province of the promoting member. And 
we may term this necessary constructive model, the 
representative medium. 

The acquirement of a true comprehension of the ex- 
isting condition and real fabricative function of the 
animal organism has been rendered difficult, by reason 
of a radical illusion, which consists in the universally 

ll 



THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM 

prevailing conception of the nature of sensible light, 
as something that really exists in environing space 
precisely as recognized by visual consciousness; but 
which is, on the contrary, a fabricated product exist- 
ing solely within the limits of the governing and pro- 
moting members of the organism. 

The normal sensation of light is produced by the oc- 
currence of physical wave motion in the environing 
ether, the amplitude of the ethereal waves which serve 
to impart the sensation of light to the sensive visual 
element of the governing member, as distinguished 
from the amplitude of the similar waves which result 
in a sensation of darkness, in nowise changing the 
physical constitution of the ethereal medium in which 
the waves are propagated. Hence, between the ani- 
mal eye and the objects in the environment, there ex- 
ists mere physical motion in the ethereal medium. 

The sensation of sound is likewise produced in ani- 
mal organisms by the effect of mere undulatory motion 
in the environing air, which motion serves to fabricate 
the sensation of sound in the auditory element of con- 
sciousness. Therefore, it must be considered that ani- 
mal organisms are fabric-producing machines em- 
ployed in transforming the intrinsically dark and silent 
wave-motion of the environment into varied nerve- 
commotion and sensation, with the consequent fabrica- 
tion of sense-representing factors, and fabrics of 
memory. And it is only through individual compre- 
hension of the fact that what we recognize as light, 
color, and sound have no objective reality as such, but 

12 



THE PROMOTING MEMBER 

exist only as a fabricated product of the enginery of 
the animal organism, that we can be at all prepared to 
realize the true fabricative importance of the animal 
mechanism, and the nature of the immediate future 
condition of the promoting and governing members 
of the animal organism, when they are separated 
from their joint organic enginery and material envi- 
ronment. 

Animal organisms, like the machines in a factory, 
are dependency related and reciprocally connected 
during the fabrication of their memorial and sense- 
representing factors. Hence the laws that govern the 
factorial operation of inanimate machines should also 
be applicable to the analogous factorial operation of 
fabricative animal organisms. 

Every manufactory for the production of inanimate 
fabrics is provided with an owner or proprietor, in 
accordance with whose will and purpose the fabricative 
operations are organized and from whom the promo- 
tive energy for fabrication is derived. Factorial 
mechanical analogy therefore requires that the terres- 
trial organic factory also should exist under the control 
of a proprietor, in accordance with whose will the 
animate organisms of the factory are constructed, and 
their fabricative operations governed and regulated. 
And this governing and regulating proprietor of the 
terrestrial factory may be termed the Proprietor and 
Regulator of Energy, and the Supreme Governor of 
the Animate Organisms of the factory. 

We find existing in every inanimate governing and 

13 



THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM 

regulating medium an element having inherent sensi- 
bility, an element adapted to prevent the uncontrolled 
expenditure of the energy the specific action of which 
is to be regulated, and an element adapted for the 
dispensation of the controlled energy in accordance 
with governmental requirements. Hence we may posit 
that there must exist in the Supreme Governor 
inherent sensibility and the power of controlling and 
dispensing energy, in accordance with the specific 
requirements of the factory. 

Now, in proceeding to determine the inherent moral 
nature of the Supreme Governor from the available 
data of factorial mechanical analogy, we find that, in 
every extensive manufactory for the production of 
inanimate fabrics, oppositely directed actions are 
required in the speed-regulating mechanism of the 
factory, to compensate for the occurring variations of 
mechanical resistance developed in the fabricative 
operations, and to maintain the desired uniform rate of 
speed in the fabricative machinery. And oppositely 
directed actions are required in all inanimate govern- 
ing and regulating mechanisms. 

The governing captain of a steamship transmits 
peremptory orders to the executive helmsman, which, 
when carried out, may cause the ship either to be kept 
steadily on its course or turned from it, in either of 
opposite directions as the case may require; and the 
helmsman dispenses the required energy for causing 
the ship to be so guided. The engineer of the ship, 
also, constitutes an executive dispenser of energy, 

14 



THE SUPREME GOVERNOR 

subject to the command of the governing captain, and 
has the power of opposite action in opening and closing 
the steam valve, for either starting or stopping the 
propelling engines of the ship, or for changing the 
direction of their rotary movement. Hence it appears 
that oppositely directed actions are required in animate, 
as well as in inanimate, governing and regulating 
mechanisms. 

The natural increase of animal organisms, if un- 
checked, and subject only to the limitations of old age, 
would be much greater than the coincident increase 
of the vegetable organisms adapted for animal food; 
so that life within the terrestrial factory could attain 
no proper stability without the employment of a nega- 
tive regulating action, by means of which the super- 
abundant increase of animal life could be economic- 
ally destroyed. Hence the regulated destruction of 
animal life is absolutely necessary for the promotion 
and proper maintenance of the factorial fabricative 
operations; and for effecting this regulative destruc- 
tion, pathogenic germs and carnivorous animals in 
abundant numbers have been provided. And since 
the fabricative operations of the terrestrial factory 
necessarily require for their fundamental basis the 
promotion of animal life, the Supreme Governor of 
the factory must be able to dispense discriminately the 
specific energies required, both for the promotion and 
destruction of life. 

Every governing medium must, in accordance with 
the true laws of mechanics, be related to an external 

15 



THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM 

reciprocal field with which it harmonizes; the action 
of the governing magnetic needle requires an external 
magnetic field, the action of a gravitative pendulum 
requires an external gravitative field, and that of a 
resilient governing diaphragm an external resilient 
field. And we may conclude from mechanical analogy 
that the manifestation of conscious intelligence in the 
governing member of an animal organism, must imply 
a conscious intelligence in its reciprocal field. 

We find, in the unicellular organisms of the factory, 
an individual sensibility superimposed upon the sensi- 
bilities of myriads of independently moving micro- 
somes, or ultimate cell-elements, existing within the 
enveloping cell structure. And in the multicellular 
animal organisms, we find an individual consciousness 
superimposed upon the collective sensibilities of myri- 
ads of cell-units, which live and move independently 
within the enveloping field of the higher conscious 
organisms. We may, therefore, conclude that in like 
manner the Supreme Governor may have an intelligent 
consciousness superimposed upon the intelligent con- 
sciousness of the fabricative organisms of the terres- 
trial factory. 

Factorial mechanical analogy, therefore, discloses a 
Supreme Governor endowed with a promotive energy 
for beneficent organic fabrication, and a destructive 
energy for beneficent regulating action, and also en- 
dowed with conscious intelligence. 

Now while the beneficent promotive functions con- 
stantly performed by the acting beneficent organisms 

16 



THE SUPREME GOVERNOR 

of the factory, imply the attribute of beneficence in 
the controlling Supreme Governor, and while the de- 
structive functions necessarily performed in the regu- 
lation of the terrestrial factory, may also imply the 
attribute of beneficence — as when a destructive surgi- 
cal operation is performed for the benefit of the indi- 
vidual operated upon — yet, in many of the organisms 
of the factory, we find an innate disposition to de- 
structive malicious action, which attribute of malevo- 
lence can have no place whatever in the nature of the 
beneficent Supreme Governor of our hypothesis. 

Since action and reaction are equal and in opposite 
directions, the production of any dynamical movement 
whatever will require an independent reactive base or 
fulcrum, which does not partake of the desired move- 
ment, but by its inherent reactive nature serves to 
impart thereto the proper directive quality. Hence, we 
may conclude that the beneficent Supreme Governor of 
the terrestrial factory, like every other entity adapted 
for the dispensation of energy, must employ an inde- 
pendent reactive medium as the required base for the 
outward manifestation of inherent attributes, and that 
the dynamics of beneficence necessarily requires for 
its independent reacting base an adverse maleficent 
medium. 

The attribute of malevolence, which embraces in its 
nature the wilful injury of others, found in certain 
organisms of the terrestrial factory will not, there- 
fore, pertain to the inherent nature of the Supreme 
Governor, but only to an independent maleficent ele- 

17 



THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM 

ment, by means of which the beneficent attribute of 
the Supreme Governor is to be dynamically dissemi- 
nated. And this maleficent element, which consti- 
tutes the necessary reactive medium for beneficent 
factorial action, may be termed the Adverse Medium. 

We have heretofore posited that a state of unceasing 
consciousness requires for its fundamental basis a 
state of unceasing stress. The beneficent attributes of 
the Supreme Governor, and the maleficent attributes 
of the Adverse Medium are together exercised in inti- 
mate connection, throughout the whole extent of the 
terrestrial factory. Hence we may reasonably posit 
that the mutual unceasing opposition which exists 
between the Supreme Governor and the co-extensive 
Adverse Medium, will serve to maintain in each a 
true unceasing state of consciousness. The Supreme 
Governor and the Adverse Medium will thus constitute 
dependently related entities, the development and exer- 
cise of the inherent attributes of the one, being abso- 
lutely required for the development and exercise of 
the inherent attributes of the other. 

The active energy of molecular repulsion caused by 
heat, and the concomitant reactive energy of cohesive 
attraction, provide a never-ceasing state of stress in all 
material substances. Hence there exists throughout 
the whole extent of the terrestrial factory the funda- 
mental element of a never-ceasing consciousness; 
whereby the everconscious Supreme Governor may be 
truly cognizant of occurring physical phenomena. The 
molecular stress caused by gravitation and revolution 

18 



THE ADVERSE MEDIUM 

may also provide a basis for the cognizance of the 
material conditions of the factory. Heat constitutes 
the fundamental variable factor upon which the fabri- 
cation of all animate existences depends and may, 
therefore, be considered as pertaining to the physical 
field of consciousness in the Supreme Governor, while 
the reactive energy of cohesion which is opposed to the 
molecular action of heat, will pertain to the physical 
field of consciousness in the reactive Adverse Medium. 

In the manufacture of inanimate fabrics, the pro- 
vided raw material is passed successively through the 
several machines and processes of the factory, to the 
final completion of the desired fabric. Hence we may 
conclude from analogy that the fabricative operations 
of the terrestrial factory also will be carried on suc- 
cessively; whereby the constituent stable elements of 
vegetable cells will, through the nutritive assimilation 
of the cells by an animal organism, be promoted to 
become constituent stable elements of animal cells, and 
the stable elements of the individual animal cells be 
promoted to become stable elements in the governing 
and promoting members of the animal organism to 
which they pertain. And we may further conclude 
that the governing and promoting members of the ani- 
mal organism, will, in like manner, upon the occasion 
of their mortal metamorphosis, be transferred as con- 
stituent elements to a higher organization. 

It is found that, at the initial building up of an 
animal organism from its elements, some of the divid- 
ing cells are necessarily appointed to the performance 

19 



THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM 

of the various operative functions of consciousness in 
the organism, while others must necessarily become 
subservient structural units in the reactive and resistive 
skeletal frame, by means of which the organism is 
enabled to act objectively. Hence, we may conclude 
from analogy, that the conjoined promoting and gov- 
erning members of the beneficent individual organisms 
of the terrestrial factory, are destined at the comple- 
tion of their mortal metamorphosis to become con- 
scious individual units in the active field of the Su- 
preme Governor; while the conjoined promoting and 
governing members of the oppositely constituted ma- 
leficent organisms, are destined to become conscious 
individual units in the reactive field of the Adverse 
Medium. 

But, notwithstanding the fact that in the normal 
development of a vertebrate animal organism from its 
ancestral cell, certain specific cells of the primary sub- 
divisions are destined to form the skeletal frame, and 
others to form the tissues of the enginery, yet, by the 
application of external pressure, the relative positions 
of the dividing cells may be so changed that those 
individual cells which would otherwise have been rele- 
gated to the tissues, are now relegated to the osseous 
structure, and those that would have been transformed 
into the osseous elements will now become component 
elements of the tissues. Hence, by analogy, while the 
individual organisms of the terrestrial factory, like 
the normally developing cells, can have no inherent 
power of changing their own natures, yet their consti- 

20 



THE ADVERSE MEDIUM 

tut ions may be changed and modified by the action of 
external influences, whereby the naturally beneficent 
organisms may be caused to become actively malefi- 
cent, and the naturally maleficent, to become actively 
beneficent; and this change in the nature of the indi- 
vidual organism can be derived only, from the action 
thereon of an oppositely constituted beneficent or 
maleficent factor, the former pertaining to the right- 
eous promotive field of the Supreme Governor, and the 
latter to the unrighteous reactive field of the Adverse 
Medium. 

The effective action of certain inanimate fabricative 
machines depends upon the strict orientation of cer- 
tain parts of their mechanism in line with the energy 
of cosmical gravitation. And it is readily apparent 
that, in the case of the analogous fabricative human 
organism, its proper beneficent action will depend 
upon the fabricative orientation of the governing and 
promoting members thereof, in line with the energies 
of the righteous beneficent field of the Supreme Gov- 
ernor of the factory, which orientation may be 
acquired and maintained by acts of beneficence and 
worshipful veneration performed by the individual 
organism. And wherever within the terrestrial fac- 
tory, acts of true righteous beneficence are being per- 
formed by an individual organism, the intelligent Su- 
preme Governor will be cognizant thereof, and in the 
reverential performance of such acts be objectively 
worshiped. And since the inherent attributes of the Su- 
preme Governor can be made manifest only through the 

21 



• THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM 

beneficent action of the righteously disposed individual 
organisms of the factory, the refusal of an individual 
to act as a medium for the factorial promotion of 
righteousness and beneficence, must constitute a true 
rejection of the beneficent Supreme Governor, and a 
virtual alliance with the maleficent Adverse Medium. 

Exemplary teachers of righteousness and beneficence 
have appeared from time to time in the terrestrial fac- 
tory, whose virtues having been impressed upon their 
contemporaries, have been handed down to us from 
age to age. The cardinal virtues embraced in the 
teachings of Jesus, — who was a special teacher of 
beneficence — consisted in the kindly performance of 
acts of compassion and generosity, and the entertain- 
ment of emotions of veneration, love and gratitude, 
while the absence of these virtues implied a positive 
state of maleficence. Amos, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, the 
Hebrew prophets, were pre-eminently teachers of 
righteousness; and Confucius, the ancient sage of 
China, was a renowned teacher of practical ethics. 

By the employment of certain typographical units, 
the printer is able to produce various concrete embodi- 
ments of the ideas which constitute the basis of a 
literary composition, the printed impressions of which, 
are presented by him to individual consciousness. So 
likewise, in dreams, the ideas of the intelligent ever- 
conscious promoting member are embodied in concrete 
sense-symbols, formed from the previously fabricated 
discrete sense-representing factors thereof, and pre- 
sented to the consciousness of the governing member 
for the exercise of its volition in connection therewith. 

22 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DREAMS 

And as the printer may at will reduce his concrete em- 
bodiments of literary ideas back to their single com- 
ponent units, and thereafter, produce other literary 
embodiments therefrom; so the intelligent promoting 
member may, at the conclusion of the dream, disin- 
tegrate the presented sense-symbols, and reduce them 
to their discrete sense-representing factors, for the 
subsequent production and presentation of other sym- 
bols from the same discrete elements. 

The sense-symbols which are presented to the gov- 
erning member in dreams, may be classified as either 
static, dynamic, or sensible. The static sense-symbols 
are those which represent stationary inanimate ob- 
jects; the dynamic are those which represent inani- 
mate objects having within themselves the inherent 
quality of motion; and the sensible, are those which 
represent and embody the special functions of animate 
organisms. 

In the critical investigation of dream phenomena, 
we discover that the governing member is provided 
with mechanically operating subjective extremities, 
which, to every test of inverse visual and tactual con- 
sciousness are the exact counterparts of the corre- 
sponding elements of the outer organic enginery ; and 
like those elements are under the complete control of 
the conscious governing member. Hence we find in 
the animal organism both material and immaterial en- 
gineries, the former existing at one side, and the latter 
at the opposite side of the resilient element of govern- 
ing consciousness ; whereby, upon the removal of the 



THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM 

outer organic enginery from the conjoint promoting 
and governing members, the immaterial subjective en- 
ginery will still subsist, and provide the requisite me- 
chanical factor for continued conscious action. 

When the animal organism is awake, the sensibility 
of the governing member is derived from the trans- 
mitted energies of the material outer environment; 
but when in the dream state, its sensibility must be 
derived from the inversely transmitted energies of the 
immaterial promoting member, which member has the 
power to arrange the various sense-symbols in their 
proper order and sequence, for dramatic and scenic 
presentation to the consciousness of the governing 
member, while the governing member through the 
medium of its immaterial subjective enginery, is able 
to forcibly change the condition of certain contiguous 
sense-symbols, whereby the independent individual 
purpose of the governing member in relation thereto, 
may be effected. 

That the sense-symbols from which the visual sense- 
images of dreams are formed are actual entities, en- 
dowed with a form of energy, is shown by the fact 
that the static sense-symbols observed in dreams may 
be divided into parts, and broken in pieces, by the 
forcible action thereon of the subjective enginery of 
the governing member, with an accompanying inverse 
sensation of resistance, similar to that direct sensation 
which would occur in the case of material objects in 
the outer environment. These divided parts of im- 
material sense-symbols are able to maintain their 

24 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DREAMS 

visual and tactile integrity, until dissolved into their 
original discrete elements by the removal of the 
volition of the promoting member, through the fabri- 
cating action of which they were originally produced. 

It is clearly evident that when the environing ob- 
jects and a percipient individual organism are at rest, 
there can be no appearance whatever of movement in 
the field of visual consciousness. Hence, when in 
dreams the visual images of moving objects are per- 
ceived, we may be certain that these visually perceived 
objects are real moving entities, and that when the 
appearance of true perspective is preserved between 
them — as it surely is in dreams — we are dealing with 
substantial objects formed of immaterial elements, ex- 
isting in a subjective field of three dimensions. 

The co-acting arms, the fingers and the thumbs, 
which constitute the physical fabricating implements 
of the human organic enginery, are intelligently actu- 
ated and controlled in the performance of simultaneous 
varied movements, through a mechanical division to 
each of these organs of a portion of the executive 
consciousness of the governing member. And when 
we see in the presentative field of dreams, subjective 
counterparts of these working members of the organ- 
ism, which are, to our knowledge, articulately con- 
nected with the governing member in the performance 
of acts of intelligence, and find also in the same 
presentative field, true representations of conscious in- 
dividual intelligences having intelligently actuated ar- 
ticulated limbs which do not pertain to the governing 

25 



THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM 

member, and are in no degree whatever subject to its 
control ; we may reasonably conclude that these repre- 
sentations of conscious individual intelligences have 
each been endowed with a divisional form of the con- 
sciousness of the promoting member, and that they are 
individually subject to the promoting member in the 
performance of their intelligent functions. 

The field of dreams — which is the presentative field 
of the promoting member — provides a subjective en- 
vironment, which, to the inverse consciousness of the 
governing member is a counterpart of the objective 
environment that constitutes the terrestrial factory; 
and hence, is manifestly appropriate as a field for the 
performance of the inherent functions of the govern- 
ing member in a continued state of conscious exist- 
ence. And by assuming that the coaction of the pro- 
moting and governing members in the dream state of 
the organism is analogous to their coaction when they 
are removed from the organic enginery in the mortal 
metamorphosis, we will be able to describe clearly, the 
future condition and operative function of the govern- 
ing and promoting elements. 

In studying the phenomena of animal metamorphosis 
we find that, for every transformation that occurs 
in the life of an animal organism, there must have 
been a preceding preparatory stage, in which the 
necessary materials for effecting the coming change 
were collected from the environment, and assimilated 
by the organism. We also find that the physical organs 
required for initial action, at the opening of the 

26 



THE MORTAL METAMORPHOSIS 

changed life condition, must have been first built up, 
and in a more or less restricted degree exercised, pre- 
paratory to the coming transformation. Or, in other 
words, for the most essential functions to be performed 
in any changed state of existence, such function must 
have been in some limited degree performed in the 
immediate prior condition of the organism. 

Hence, if the extinction of the physical life of an 
animal organism implies a transformation from one 
life condition to another, through the removal of the 
promoting and governing members from their joint 
organic enginery, a prior fabricative preparation for 
such a transformation is necessary. And since this 
event may occur at any time, such preparation should 
be constant and unremitting. Therefore, if we cannot 
point out the required constant and unceasing prepara- 
tion for a future conscious state of existence, the fact 
of such existence becomes involved in doubt, and can- 
not be scientifically admitted. 

It is within the limit of our positive knowledge that 
the recognized manifestations of sensible light, color, 
and sound, which are developed to the consciousness 
of the governing member, do not exist externally of 
the organism, but are simply original fabrications, 
produced entirely within the limits of the governing 
and promoting members, through the mechanical effect 
of the physical undulations that occur directly be- 
tween the external objects and the organs of sense. 
It is also within our knowledge that these physical 
undulations are being constantly employed, during the 

27 



THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM 

entire conscious existence of the animal organism, 
in the fabricative acquisition of sense-representing 
factors, from which sense-symbols adapted for the 
production of inverse consciousness in the governing 
member may be fabricated. Hence, the first men- 
tioned requirement of an incessant constructive prepa- 
ration for the inevitable mortal metamorphosis may, 
in the constant and unceasing fabrication of such fac- 
tors, be fully complied with. 

But we have also to apply the test of prior limited 
exercise, in this life, of those special functions that 
will be required in their full perfection in another 
state of existence from which the present objects of 
sense and the peripheral organic enginery of sensation 
and motion are wholly separated. And in this re- 
spect, also, we are able to point out the required pre- 
paratory exercise for a coming metamorphosis, in the 
universally occurring phenomenon of dreams, in which 
the fabricated sense-symbols are often presented to the 
consciousness of the governing member with prac- 
tically the full vividness of light, color, and sound, and 
with all the minuteness of mechanical detail pertain- 
ing to the material objects from which they were orig- 
inally derived. Hence we may reasonably conclude 
that in the objective world, the animal organism is 
constantly engaged in the individual fabrication and 
accumulation of sensive sense-representing factors ; 
and that, in the subjective dream world, the promo- 
ting and governing members of the organism are being 
together exercised — under present imperfect condi- 

28 



THE MORTAL METAMORPHOSIS 

tions — in preparation for their proper conjoint action 
during the mortal metamorphosis. 

It is well known that consciousness in the animal 
organism is dependent upon a full supply of blood to 
the brain; and that, if the proper flow of blood is 
interfered with, consciousness ceases. How then can 
it be reasonably presumed that conscious memory can 
exist upon the removal of the sanguineous elements of 
the organic enginery, upon which consciousness at 
present absolutely depends? 

In reply to this question it may be stated that, in 
the transformation of an animal from one life condi- 
tion to another, we have in nature examples of both 
immediate and prolonged metamorphosis. An imme- 
diate metamorphosis occurs, when the transformation 
removes the organism at once entirely from its prior 
life condition. A prolonged metamorphosis occurs 
when a stage intervenes, in which the organism is but 
partially removed from its prior state, and for a time 
makes additional preparation for a subsequent com- 
pletion of the metamorphosis. In the case of the 
higher animal organisms, the transformation effected 
by the separation of the governing and promoting 
members from their organic engineries constitutes a 
prolonged, and not an immediate metamorphosis, since 
the governing member is to be actuated to conscious- 
ness through the action of the reversely presented 
sense-images, which are related entirely to objects of 
the present life and environment. Therefore, it is 
only upon the completion of a subsequent fabrication, 

29 



THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM 

which must be effected through the action of the ever- 
conscious promoting member, that a complete meta- 
morphosis will be established. Furthermore, in every 
case of prolonged organic metamorphosis, the tissues 
of a previously employed structure, — now of no fur- 
ther use or benefit, are caused to disintegrate and 
become dissolved into their original discrete elements, 
in order to provide suitable material for the fabrica- 
tion of a new and distinct structure for the comple- 
tion of the metamorphosis. Hence it will be clearly 
seen that the analogous disintegration of certain 
structures which were originally fabricated from the 
sensive cell-elements of the organism, and usefully em- 
ployed by the governing and promoting members dur- 
ing their conjoint connection with the organic en- 
ginery, and which are now of no further use, may pro- 
vide the same discrete elements as before, for the for- 
mation of new fabrics of memory in which occurring 
states of sensive, emotive and co-ordinative conscious- 
ness may be recorded, without requiring the acquisi- 
tion of original material from a continued circulation 
of blood. 

In the pupal metamorphosis of certain species of in- 
sects, where very extensive changes of structure are 
to be effected, the necessary disintegration of those 
tissues which are no longer required is due to the ac- 
tivity of the independent blood corpuscles, or leu- 
cocytes, which pertain to the vascular system of the 
insect organism, and, therefore, to the field of the pro- 
moting member, the disused larval organs being broken 

30 



THE MORTAL METAMORPHOSIS 

up by the leucocytes and disintegrated, to form the 
requisite building material for the succeeding more 
elaborate structure. And in this case, the disintegra- 
tion of the larval tissues is not to be attributed to the 
previous death of the cells, but is the result of the in- 
dependent action of the leucocytes on tissues which, 
although weakened in their vital power, are still living ; 
so that, while the most active larval tissues are 
enabled to withstand the attacks of the leucocytes, the 
less active are divided by them into fragments and re- 
duced to their discrete elementary condition, in order 
to provide proper material for subsequent constructive 
fabrication. So likewise, in the transformation of 
the tadpole into an adult frog, the disintegration of 
the living tissues of its tail for the fabrication there- 
from of the required new structure is solely effected 
by the action of the leucocytes. And such disintegra- 
tion of tissues by independent organisms is common 
in animal metamorphosis — the leucocytes themselves 
finally becoming incorporated as permanent integral 
elements in the tissues of the new organization. 

We further find in animal metamorphosis, that not 
only the material tissues of the organic enginery are 
disintegrated and transformed into other tissues by 
the action of the promoting member, but the con- 
trolling instinct of, the organism which embraces the 
immaterial sensive and emotive factors, is also 
changed and modified, in order to adapt the animal 
to its required new life condition. 

Hence we may posit that it is a fundamental law of 

31 



THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM 

animal transformation from one life condition to an- 
other by prolonged metamorphosis, that some of the 
parts of the organism which had a function in the 
prior life condition must be broken up and dissolved, 
to provide the required material for the development 
of the new organs, and that, where extensive changes 
of organization are required to complete the trans- 
formation, the necessary dissolution of the unused 
parts is to be effected by the action of certain inde- 
pendent sensible agencies which pertain to the field of 
the promoting member. And these changes are to be 
effected in the immaterial, as well as the material ele- 
ments of the organism. 

We may now be asked to point out in the human 
mortal metamorphosis, the necessary independent sen- 
sive agencies that are capable of effecting the required 
extensive changes in the organization, for the full 
completion of its transformation in the line of its pre- 
dominant attributes, either of beneficence or malefi- 
cence. 

We often find in the field of dreams certain true 
representations of conscious individual intelligences, 
which present to the inverse consciousness of the gov- 
erning member all the characteristics of objective 
reality and intelligent action, that pertained to those 
individuals of the terrestrial factory, in connection 
with whom, the emotive factors of the governing mem- 
ber were originally developed and exercised. And by 
means of such intelligently acting individual repre- 
sentations, the promoting member has the power to 



THE MORTAL METAMORPHOSIS 

present for the contemplation and action of the gov- 
erning member, such scenes and incidents, as will favor 
the continued growth of the stronger emotive-factors, 
with a corresponding reduction of the weaker. Hence 
we may posit that if, at the initiation of the mortal 
metamorphosis, the tendency of the stronger emotive 
factors of the governing member is toward the dispen- 
sation of energy for maleficent selfish fabrication, then 
the elements of its weaker emotive factors which per- 
tain to beneficent fabrication, must necessarily be re- 
duced and fabricatively appropriated, in order to pro- 
vide the requisite immaterial elements for the pro- 
motion of the stronger emotive factors of maleficence, 
and vice versa, the required reductive changes and 
appropriation of elements for the proper completion of 
the metamorphosis, being necessarily effected in the 
line of least resistance. So that the governing mem- 
ber, will, by the inevitable suppression of its weaker 
emotive factors during the progress of its mortal 
metamorphosis, be rendered either positively malefi- 
cent or positively beneficent in its impulses and gov- 
erning actions, and be thereby fitted either for the 
righteous field of the beneficent Supreme Governor, or 
for the opposite reactive field of the maleficent 
Adverse Medium. 

^ It is evident that if in the case of one individual, the 
promoting member is constrained by the intrinsic 
character of the governing member, to derive its trans- 
forming power from an energy which pertains to the 
active field of the Supreme Governor, and in the case 



THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM 

of another individual from an energy which pertains 
to the reactive field of the Adverse Medium — then the 
engineries provided for the objective action of these 
individuals at the completion of their transformations, 
will be attuned to their respective transforming fields 
of energy, whereby the world which is adapted for the 
conscious action of the one transformed individual, 
will be separate and distinct from that of the other. 



34 



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